It has been 18 days since Jackson residents have been able to use the water from the tap without boiling it first. Now, the Jackson City Council and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba say it’s time to look at someone else running the city’s water treatment plant. What the city council wanted to do during Tuesday’s meeting was make it clear that the city is losing confidence to do its job.With the state-imposed boil-water notice still in place, Lumumba said the city doesn’t have enough people to properly run the water treatment plant, so it’s time to go hire another company to do the job for them.”The state of Mississippi should have stepped in and put us under receivership for not being in compliance. They did not. The federal government should have stepped in. They did not,” said Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes. Stokes wants the city water system to be run by an outside company. At the very least, the troubled O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant that, on top of water quality problems, also has two 8 million-gallon pumps still out of commission.”They are woefully short-staffed and overworked, but we need help,” said Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay. Those pumps pull water from the reservoir for treatment, but the mayor admits the city does not have enough properly trained engineers to manage the plant. He said they are already looking at hiring an outside management company to take over operations at the treatment plants.”We have already started to meet with companies about this,” Lumumba said. “We are looking at where the attractiveness lives for them.”It will cost money, but the mayor said he doesn’t know how much yet, but he did warn the council that other parts of the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant are in danger of breaking in the coming days, weeks or months.”When things break, or when we have a boil-water notice, or loss of water pressure, more times than not, it is on account of some failure in the water treatment facility. That is what we are dealing with,” the mayor said.But Stokes said he still thinks the city should just bring in an outside company to take over the entire city water system.”If you have a management company, and the mayor is going to dictate to them what they can and can’t do, then we are going to be in the same boat we are in now,” Stokes said.But the city council is not heading in that direction yet. They did instruct the mayor to look at hiring an outside company to manage operations at the water treatment plants, which could take several months to resolve. Meanwhile, the mayor says the city is hoping to be able to lift this latest water notice by the end of the week.
JACKSON, Miss. —
It has been 18 days since Jackson residents have been able to use the water from the tap without boiling it first.
Now, the Jackson City Council and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba say it’s time to look at someone else running the city’s water treatment plant. What the city council wanted to do during Tuesday’s meeting was make it clear that the city is losing confidence to do its job.
With the state-imposed boil-water notice still in place, Lumumba said the city doesn’t have enough people to properly run the water treatment plant, so it’s time to go hire another company to do the job for them.
“The state of Mississippi should have stepped in and put us under receivership for not being in compliance. They did not. The federal government should have stepped in. They did not,” said Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes.
Stokes wants the city water system to be run by an outside company. At the very least, the troubled O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant that, on top of water quality problems, also has two 8 million-gallon pumps still out of commission.
“They are woefully short-staffed and overworked, but we need help,” said Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay.
Those pumps pull water from the reservoir for treatment, but the mayor admits the city does not have enough properly trained engineers to manage the plant. He said they are already looking at hiring an outside management company to take over operations at the treatment plants.
“We have already started to meet with companies about this,” Lumumba said. “We are looking at where the attractiveness lives for them.”
It will cost money, but the mayor said he doesn’t know how much yet, but he did warn the council that other parts of the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant are in danger of breaking in the coming days, weeks or months.
“When things break, or when we have a boil-water notice, or loss of water pressure, more times than not, it is on account of some failure in the water treatment facility. That is what we are dealing with,” the mayor said.
But Stokes said he still thinks the city should just bring in an outside company to take over the entire city water system.
“If you have a management company, and the mayor is going to dictate to them what they can and can’t do, then we are going to be in the same boat we are in now,” Stokes said.
But the city council is not heading in that direction yet. They did instruct the mayor to look at hiring an outside company to manage operations at the water treatment plants, which could take several months to resolve.
Meanwhile, the mayor says the city is hoping to be able to lift this latest water notice by the end of the week.
[ad_2]
Originally Appeared Here